posted 16.01.200812:07
According to the scamps over at 40% there is a good torrent of this on mininova. Not that I condone such things, you understand?
Posts: 12499 | From: East of Ealing | Registered: May 2002
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quote:Juno is somewhat divergent from real life because in the film Jason Bateman said he danced to "All the Young Dudes" by Mott the Hoople at his prom in 1988. That's unlikely, unless his prom had a particularly good DJ (which is also unlikely).

My grad was in 1988. I've been wondering: does that mean I'm now supposed to identify with the parental figures in teen flicks? Because I don't. Didn't emphasize with Bateman in this movie at all. I don't empathise with the teen characters the way I used to, but I'm clearly more in tune with them than the adults (possibly more a product of film POV than anything else).

I think that's a big point of the movie. The film is juxtaposing somebody who is growing up too fast due to unforseen, but preventable, circumstances with somebody who hasn't grown up quite fast enough due to unforseen, but preventable, circumstances.

Juno is 16 and trying to step-up to handle an "adult" situation. And, perhaps ironically, the adult way to handle that particular situation is to acknowledge that she can't handle it, at least not on her own.

Jason Bateman is over twice her age and still can't really face up to his responsibilities. He's become an adult by faking being what other people have told him an adult should be. If he didn't want to have a baby with his wife, he should have said so a while ago before he dragged his wife and this young girl into the picture. But instead he went along with it just because that's what somebody at his stage in life is supposed to do. If he can't handle a wife who is anal retentive and insists on shoving all of is music gear into a small room in their otherwise immaculate McMansion, then he probably should have seen that coming and not married her. But he did. If he really wanted to live in downtown Minneapolis instead of St. Cloud and be a full time musician, he could have done that. Instead, he decided he'd rather have a McMansion so he makes commercial jingles, but he hasn't been willing to "own" that decision eiher. So now he's caught in between and hurt a few other people as a result.

I could empathize with Batemen's character a bit. It is a struggle to decide what compromises one is going to make for money and stability and when and if it's time to give up on one's adolescent dreams, but you've got to accept those decisions up front or you'll regret it later and hurt more people in the long run than you would have if you'd figured it out up front.

Not that that means that Bateman's character is an especially bad person. This happens to lots of people, especially men. I've struggled with all of those questions too, but because I'm not married and have no kids, most of my decisions and mistakes only affect me.